Ducks ALIVE in 2025!

[Phaedra]

Planting Tulip Bulbs in Winter

It's not too late to plant tulip bulbs! Learn how to plant tulip bulbs in winter from The Old Farmer's Almanac.

www.almanac.com

Yes, I also read similar articles and plant my tulips later and later recent years. Two days ago, the weather was sunny and the soil isn't frozen - I plant four varieties, close to 120 tulips in one rasied bed. The rest would be planted in pots, I guess.

 

[Finnie]

OMGosh, @Finnie , spelling makes ALL of the difference.
His name is Chuck Voight, and currently he is a University of Illinois Extension Officer, something I didn't know until this week's edition of Mid-American Gardener. Here is what he looks like:

Gardening and Growing

Illinois Extension has a vast collection of resources addressing horticultural interests across Illinois. We recognize that home and commercial horticulturalists

extension.illinois.edu

Serving Grundy, Kankakee and Will Counties

Events, press releases, announcements, and news for Serving Grundy, Kankakee and Will Counties

extension.illinois.edu

I am guessing that you live in the same zone and have similar soil structure.
I will continue to search to find you a direct link.

Hahahaha! Well that explains the deep mystery of why such a prominent professor does not exist on the internet!

ETA: Yes, I think I’m roughly due east of you and probably in a similar zone. Soil here is pretty much clay, which I amend where possible, or dump better dirt on top.

 

[Finnie]

Now I have to go cross out the misspelling on my printed sheet…

 

[ducks4you]

Winter Bird Feeding with Suet

To say our weather has turned cold is an understatement. Last week, while sledding with my children my pants froze! We did not last long on the sledding hill that

extension.illinois.edu

 

[ducks4you]

How to Store Unused Seeds: Proven Strategies for Saving Unused Seeds for Next Year’s Garden - St. Clare Heirloom Seeds

How to store unused seeds is an essential skill for gardeners who want to maximize the value of their seed packets and ensure a thriving garden year after year.

www.stclareseeds.com

"

Seed Drying for Home Gardeners​

A way we have found of drying seeds for the home gardener to bring the moisture low enough, and keep high viability is using a food dehydrator, with very careful monitoring of temperature, as anything over 95°F will damage the seeds viability. We always keep at 85°F to be safe. Even placing on a window screen with a fan blowing on them until they are dry enough works."

 

[ducks4you]

7 High-Maintenance Plants To Banish In 2025: Say Goodbye To These Demanding Divas

Expert Bonnie Grant has learned the hard way that some plants are more effort than they're worth. She wants gardeners to think twice before committing to these popular varieties.

www.gardeningknowhow.com

 

[heirloomgal]

How to Store Unused Seeds: Proven Strategies for Saving Unused Seeds for Next Year’s Garden - St. Clare Heirloom Seeds

How to store unused seeds is an essential skill for gardeners who want to maximize the value of their seed packets and ensure a thriving garden year after year.

www.stclareseeds.com

"

Seed Drying for Home Gardeners​

A way we have found of drying seeds for the home gardener to bring the moisture low enough, and keep high viability is using a food dehydrator, with very careful monitoring of temperature, as anything over 95°F will damage the seeds viability. We always keep at 85°F to be safe. Even placing on a window screen with a fan blowing on them until they are dry enough works."

I'd be careful of a dehydrator on seeds. I tried using one once, and it fried the pepper seeds despite being on a very low setting. Dicey. I much prefer overhead fans, or any kind of fan really.

 

[digitS']

"Demanding Divas," eh? I bet she does get some "push back" on some of those ideas.

It probably helps that plants aren't telling us what shining goddesses they are but we are making those decisions ourselves. In the notes it says that the author is primarily interested in edible landscapes. That makes sense, probably why she included sunchokes, and about where i am also (altho i like the flavor of sunchokes ). I also take more pleasure from a cottage garden than anything more formal altho some "Japanese gardens" are so  understated that they are really calming places to be. By "cottage" I suppose that I'm saying "anything goes" .

Roses? As someone who worked for years in a commercial greenhouse growing roses for flower shops, I have an idea of what care they need. My answer would be – not much. Good gravy, we had thousands upon thousands of plants. But having that experience, I can also say that I don't live in southern China. That's where hybrid teas are from.

What are you gonna do with roses if you don't live in southern China or have an acre of glass structures to put them in? Well, you are gonna do the best you can ... I should point out that I live somewhere that wild roses have lived with no attention from humans for thousands of years. Lots of places have wild roses but if you want something else then you better be making the right choices.

A diva is a diety, or was at one time in her Mediterranean homeland . Okay, if you have a Mediterranean climate and soil, maybe you should be looking to Mt Olympus for inspiration and choices .

Funny how if you are around long enough, you see trends in landscaping. Right now, I'm seeing considerable neglect if that can be called a trend ... anyway, not all that long ago, azaleas sprung up just about everywhere. I thought of them as something of a second choice to rhododendrons. Shucks, if I lived back on the coast in northern California where rhododendrons grow wild with the dogwood and redwood trees, I would be delighted to have some in the yard. Otherwise, I see how people here have to push them into very protected places. Well, they are not very suitable elsewhere. BTW, I doubt if I am seeing 10% of the azalea numbers that were around here 20 years ago.

Steve, adieu (god be with you, goodbye)

 

[ducks4you]

Funny how if you are around long enough, you see trends in landscaping. Right now, I'm seeing considerable neglect if that can be called a trend ... anyway, not all that long ago, azaleas sprung up just about everywhere. I thought of them as something of a second choice to rhododendrons. Shucks, if I lived back on the coast in northern California where rhododendrons grow wild with the dogwood and redwood trees, I would be delighted to have some in the yard. Otherwise, I see how people here have to push them into very protected places. Well, they are not very suitable elsewhere. BTW, I doubt if I am seeing 10% of the azalea numbers that were around here 20 years ago.

Steve, adieu (god be with you, goodbye)

I just post these articles for exactly what you DID, commentary and discussion.
Right now, I am avoiding any plants that won't handle a zone 6a winter, unless I am planting indoors.
But, you should KNOW, that Your climate is a lot more arid than mine, something many flowering plants prefer. The only one I can think of that really likes wet feet is Forget Me Not, and even I can't find a place in My yard that is consistently wet enough for that one, so all seeds given to me have been left to dry out and die.
I am afraid no blooms for my Amaryllis THIS year.
Looks like only more leaves. Still, THEY are Healthy leaves. I think that I should have let the Fall leaves die back. I cut them back, hoping to revive it and get flowers in the winter. Certainly the inTention of the grower who glued it to a board last year was to Let it die after Christmas 2023 and have me buy a new one.
No bother. I Guess I'll keep it going, put it outside on the north side of the house come late Mayish, and let it get some sunshine and breeze, bring it inside Septemberish and try again for more flowers Next year. **le sigh**

 

[digitS']

Myosotis sylvatica is an invasive perennial. LINK

It is here along the border, even in my yard before I arrived and continuing. LINK

Yes, Summers in a dry climate with several hundred feet of glacial till beneath the soil means a need for irrigation. There's no getting around it unless I want to grow only cheat grass and sage brush.